Thursday, February 21, 2013

Rev. Dennison and Toni Weaver present the case for marriage equality to a staffer for Rep. McSweeney.

Note:Members of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation in McHenry and our
allies from PFLAG have taken a lead in lobbying local legislators for Marriage
Equality in Illinois.Yesterday Rev.
Sean Parker Dennison and PFLAG’s Toni Weaver lead a second round of lobbying in
mass visits.This time to local Republicans,
including County GOP chair Rep.Mike Tryon and freshman Rep.David McSweeney, a certified Tea
Partier.Neither will support the bill
in the House but it is critical that they hear our voices.Word is that Illinois House Executive
Committee has set the hearing on the marriage bill for next Tuesday, February
26. Below is the text of the statement read at the district offices by Rev.
Sean.

We
are here to urge you to take a stand for justice and equality by supporting
equal marriage in Illinois. We are here because this issue is the defining
civil rights issue of our time. Our country was founded on the ideal that all
are created equal and all deserve “life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness,” making the right thing to do very clear—allow our gay
and lesbian friends, neighbors, sons, daughters, parents to marry the people
they love.

Unitarian
Universalists have supported marriage equality—along with full civil rights
and protections for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people for nearly
forty years. We long to live in a nation that lives up to the promise of
equality and equal protection under the law for all people. We believe that
equal marriage is a good first step to that goal.

Equal marriage is not a small thing. The ability to
marry confers access to more than 1,000 legal benefits—including health care
coverage, hospital visitation rights, family medical leave—benefits that are
incredibly important. When these rights are denied, families suffer. And worse,
we are complicit in that suffering. And that is unethical, unfair, and wrong.

Finally, we believe in equality and love, not
division and fear. We know from our religious experience of worshipping and
being together that what unites us as families and as people is much greater
than what divides us. We need our leaders and our laws to stand on the side of
love and equality if we are to live up to the great principles upon which our
state and nation were founded.

Please, support marriage equality in Illinois.
Stand on the right side of history. Again today, a study was published that
found that it is not just us, but a majority of the people of Illinois, who
believe that marriage equality is the right thing to do. We urge you to vote
for its passage.

Respectfully,

Rev.
Sean Parker Dennison, Minister,

On behalf of the 171 members of
the Unitarian Universalist Congregation
in McHenry